Tig Welder Advice Needed

[Redmohawk]

Pete forget using Ali through a steel liner, and with a dc mig like a transtig you want argon/helium mix at about $180 a bottle plus rent. Its far from worth it. You will still get uncontroled perosity through your welds (looks like shit to anyone who knows ali welding and will leak air/fuel if doing something important) .

Yes it can be done I did a car log intake with the transmig at work (with just argon) and a teflon liner.It was from 5 to 12mm thick, welded two log manifolds together with some 6mm plate. It had some perosity but i wasnt to stressed I'll dig up a photo of it. Took about 140 amps (but to do it I needed a mig capable of 250 as it needs to be a clean 140 not some welder that will "just" put out 140 for a while) I lined the inside with motorbike tank sealer so ensure it didnt have any leaks due to perosity (tested it before sealing it at 100psi in a waterbath, didnt go boom but did have 4 leaks)

As you can see the welds were far from pritty , with the pulse mig life was much easyer just set the material type gas and thickness it did all the real work and welds looked just sexy. Still not tig quality but very presentable.

[RevHead]

i need to make a few brackets and getting sick of paying $100 n hour to the metal shop down the road,i got aboc gas account so thats not a worry,and ive got a spare gun and lead,

[Redmohawk]

$100 an hour is a little steep , going rate here for tig/mig ali work is $75.

But if you set it all up and its only brackets prob only take 30 min to smash it out with mig (so $50) , still a fuck load cheaper than buying a $50 little roll of ali $400 worth of gas/bottle rent a $150 handpiece $35 for a teflon liner.

Dont forget if your grinding ali with a flap disk before welding it use a fresh disk (steel n other shit in the flap disk from other work will fuck your ali weld) and buy a separate stainless steel wire brush for cleaning up for the same reason. Weld on a clean bench (no grinding steel etc on it) clean is key to good mig welding Ali and torch is Neg when welding Ali (welding clamp is positive) Make sure your clamp is a good copper conductor to the workpiece not copper with steel teath.

[RevHead]

ty good advice

[MTBEERWAH]

i do a bit tig/mig ally at work,played with it on and off 25yrs,you can use your standard mig. set up with argon
as been said over sized liner, always make sure your gun and lead is as straight as possible,as there not really designed for it, and you need a pull through gun to make work properly.
you will get angry when the wire bunches up at the rollers...it will happen,
you should have U rollers!
porosity should only happen if not enough gas: wind blowing: or impurities in the material,and you should use an stainless steel wire brush to clean the area to be welded always

[RevHead]

il look into a pull through gun

[L.B]

Dont forget if your grinding ali with a flap disk before welding it use a fresh disk (steel n other shit in the flap disk from other work will fuck your ali weld) and buy a separate stainless steel wire brush for cleaning up for the same reason. Weld on a clean bench (no grinding steel etc on it) clean is key to good mig welding Ali and torch is Neg when welding Ali (welding clamp is positive) Make sure your clamp is a good copper conductor to the workpiece not copper with steel teath.

Yep good advice.Adding to that when welding aly,you esp. need to cover up all skin as I found the hard (or burnt) way lol.
So whats the latest info/thoughts on brands of AC/DC tigs?
Been looking at Unimig & would luv an Esab to go with the mig I have.Even welded aly with the mig,not too bad but would be better with tig.
Need to weld 3mm aly,info?Esp on what best gas mix to go for.

[kev@vcm]

OK guys thanks heaps for all the opinions awesome stuff , what im looking for is whats a good unit what should i stay away from ftuff like that please i dont know what is good or crap and my local guy just wants to sell me the best at a massive price im looking for a bugget priced TIG

now can i get something for about $2k these are the answers im seeking

cheers
BK

[Neo Dutch]

I have a Trans Tig AC/DC HF 150 amp machine. Does real nice work.

Supposedly Gasweld is selling cylinders in Sydney at the mo. Something like 5 hundy initial buy-in and then swap for the price of gas. Will be looking into it now that my rent is due.

[Redmohawk]

Finally got My Tig back first weld , in less than ideal conditions .

[Deano]

keep in mind you will spend another $600 or so on bits to make the machine weld the way you want on the materials you want. i have the below and some but to cover the 3 basic materials and different postions of accessability (95% of most of your future jobs) i would consider the below a 'starter package' and supply the below inc a welder as a 'ready to weld' package to customers that require. you can obviously do with out some fillers depending on what you want to weld but i have all my bases covered.

foot control
gas lenses and adaptors
4 or 5 different cups
1.6, 2.4, 3.2 tungstens and collets
short back caps
auto change welding helmet (dc tig suitable)
1.6 steel filler wire
1.6, 2.4 alloy filler wire
1.2, 1.6, 2.4 s/steel filler wire
pickling paste

[Issues]

I have had my unitig about 5 years or so now and its been a good unit so far. Seems to be a cheap copy of a Kempy, has all the same functions and such. 200 amp AC/DC HF start, 2 and 4 stage start switch and can be used with a foot controller that I don't have. I set the rgulator up with a Tee on the output side to run 2 flow controls for purge welding, I haven't used it to purge weld yet though. I have done plenty of winch mods, a polished T bucket floor pan and 265 HEMI multipoint fuel injected manifold and plenty od stainless turbo and induction piping. Plenty of other steel and stainless tig ect. I run 2.4 tungstens and normally 2.4 filler, sometimes 1.6 filler or .9 stainless mig wire for thin stainless work.

The unitig cost me about $1700 when I got it and with the stick hadpiece, dual flow meters and collet size change cost me abour $2300 all up. Well worth having kicking around for all the odd jobs I do.

Like Ivan, I have had plenty of HF shocks through the hands and legs and still get tingles from it.

[slingy88]

Hi,

I was after the same, and did much forum searching on the matter and a name that kept coming up for me was Token Tools.
They are chineese made (as is most stuff) but to an australian design. They have a shop in sydney and you can trial the machines i beleive if you take in your own scrap to weld. The owner is and electronics engineer and i believe had some design input into the machines and thus supply spares and repair in the shop.
I have to say, i'm very happy with it, great customer support, fast shipping and have recommended to many. Oh and my machine is 200A AC/DC, HF start, 2 & 4 stage start switch provisions for foot switch, pulse (really handy), up/down slope, post gas timer and came with collets and shields for 1.6, 2.0 and 2.4, stick handpiece and plasma torch for inbuilt 40A plasma cutter which i'm still getting used too. All for $1450 on special at the time.I think normal price is $1650

[kev@vcm]

Hi,

I was after the same, and did much forum searching on the matter and a name that kept coming up for me was Token Tools.
They are chineese made (as is most stuff) but to an australian design. They have a shop in sydney and you can trial the machines i beleive if you take in your own scrap to weld. The owner is and electronics engineer and i believe had some design input into the machines and thus supply spares and repair in the shop.
I have to say, i'm very happy with it, great customer support, fast shipping and have recommended to many. Oh and my machine is 200A AC/DC, HF start, 2 & 4 stage start switch provisions for foot switch, pulse (really handy), up/down slope, post gas timer and came with collets and shields for 1.6, 2.0 and 2.4, stick handpiece and plasma torch for inbuilt 40A plasma cutter which i'm still getting used too. All for $1450 on special at the time.I think normal price is $1650

thats excellent ok will check them out cheers heaps

[Deano]

Supergas have cig 200a ac/dc tigs on spec with pulse on dc as well as ac for $1500 or so. Would be my choice over anything above that has been discussed

[xa-mont]

THREAD DIG!!!

I'm going to buy myself a TIG in the imminent future (that way i can stop using works one all the time :P)

I will be welding mild stainless and aluminium.

The options as far as i see it is to either buy a smallish new machine, something like this:
http://justtools.com.au/cigweld-weld...t-kit-w1006200

or getting a slightly older, more robust machine second hand, like this:
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Tig-Welde...item2ed88a9cc9

what would be the advantages and dissadvantages?

I have 3 ph power at home, so that isn't a big deal, it just means that i can't take the welder elsewhere and use it (i have a shitty little gasless mig that i could use for that kind of thing)

Will either be particularly better than the other in any way? the kemmpi is obviously still a fairly recent machine that has pulse and everything.

Cheers,
Trav

[Deano]

Kemmpi all the way. It won't be made in China the cig will.
It was probably a 5k machine when new.

[ozzy1100]

im with deano, i got a 2nd hand miller 300 dynasty from a welding repair and surply place for $2200 ($7500 new) including
miller foot pedal, new 8 mtr 26 air touch and a new 8mtr 50mm2 earth, all with a warranty. I have a small 160 amp dc tig
(6kg) that I take on sight. In saying that I know plenty of people running a 240v china tig with no prob but in the direction
your going trav might pay to step up

[Gitzy]

I got one of these at work Trav just to have a fiddle with and it does the trick, HF 200amp with ac and dc pulse, it was $1299..

http://razorweld.com/catalogue_produ...&subcategory=1

I have used that Cigweld model and loved it also, I've never had anything to do with or used a Kemppi everything I've used for the last 10 years is a Lincoln love them too.